I still use my iPod Classic. I can plug it into my car for when I'm out of FM range, and I have a Bluetooth adapter for it that plugs into the headphone socket & lets me listen via my hearing aids. It's better than a phone for me, because the mobile signal is weak where I live, and most of my garden is out of WiFi range. It fits all my music and still has room for podcasts.
I really want an mp3 player right now - my last one broke and I don't want to carry a phone instead. But it seems like they're either ultra-cheap, overpriced or don't have features I need (like Bluetooth). It is so sad that the midrange audio players pretty much disappeared now. So instead looking as DIY projects, cannot believe.
The original ipod looks very cool btw, even if I would never use one myself - way too large.
Why necessarily "used"? Also I have this exact thing already. I just wanted a device that has no cell connectivity option and thus no tracking, and also (maybe even more importantly) - is smaller and lighter. Going for sports with a phone is inconvenient af.
I am using a Hifi Walker H2. It is a reasonable price, has bluetooth and no capacitive touch inputs. The UI is not great but the device is physically solid and works for me.
I pre-ordered a Tangara on their crowd funding. I am hopeful about the opensource hardware and software. Only reservation is capacitive touch scroll wheel.
They don’t call them “mp3 players” anymore - that may be why you can’t find what you need. Look for a “DAP” instead - digital audio player - and you’ll probably have more luck.
For example, the Fiio M7 is $200 and is pretty full-featured. I have the M6 and I think I paid around $100, but I don’t think it’s being sold anymore.
What I looked for were product categories. Ye, seen these models. $200 is very, very expensive for me, it would be weird to spend on a player more than you would on a phone.
The only reason I stopped using my iPod was because I lost it. 🥲
It was my companion for many many years, I think I lost it in 2016 or something. I recently started considering getting another one, but I honestly wouldn't like having to install iTunes just for it.
There are a lot of non-Apple options for a very similar experience. I have a Fiio X1 Gen 2 that I like. They're not widely available new anymore but they are still about the same price as when I got it.
You don’t need iTunes to manage an iPod. There are tons of alternative apps, as well as plugins for music players like foobar2000 and Winamp.
iPods are still great. You can even replace their hard drives with modern flash storage and they work. It’s actually really impressive, i built a 256GB iPod Mini and iTunes has no problem with it. For the Mini, any compact flash card works as a drop-in replacement for the hard drive. Other models require a cheap adapter.
I completely forgot about that! I used foobar2000 a lot back in the day, but never managed how to manage my iPod through it, it was just my main music player.
Is there a market for modified iPods? I'd love to get one already modified with the flash storage you mentioned
I never stopped using my iPod Nano 6G. Instead of switching to streaming, I continued to grow my collection of music from purchasing or renting and ripping CDs. I still have yet to listen to every song in my library (although everything fits on my iPod after compressing), so it is hard to justify paying for streaming
As an alternative, I suggest ListenBrainz. It is like last.fm, where you install a "scrobbler" to monitor your listening, and then it provides platform-agnostic recommendations.
I’ve been using a gen 5.5 for about 10 months and am quite enjoying it. I bought a refurb with a fresh battery and SD card replacement. Sounds great, nostalgia moments on point, and can enjoy music without my phone.
On Linux it’s been a bit cumbersome to get content on, and the podcast experience is subpar by modern expectations, but I still appreciate the tactile interface. It’s nice to interact with things that aren’t all glass touch surfaces.
Put Rockbox on it and drag and drop any audio file onto the iPod like you would any removable media. You can also play flac, ogg, and many other formats not supported by the og OS.
I had considered this. I still may at some point. I wanted to play with the original interface and experience that. Plus my car connects well to iPods (it’s an older car) and that’s pretty handy. I’m pretty sure it’ll get the audio from rockbox but less confident playlists and such will work.
Rockbox has pretty great playlist support. You can use m3u playlist you generate and drag those over or rockbox can create them. The original iPod interface is much nicer. Rockbox can be a bit cumbersome but you can find some nice themes to pretty faithfully recreate the look and feel.
The issue is keeping them working. My wife has iPods (gen 3?). We've backed Tangara in the hope that it will replicate the experience and let us finally replace them. It's surprisingly difficult (read: impossible) to get something that plays music, has a wakeup alarm, and has a sleep timer.
For me it’s also about reducing my reliance on my mobile. Teaching my kids by example that life isn’t only on my phone is easier when I can more clearly demonstrate what I’m doing. To listen to music I get my music device. When I want to take pictures, I grab my camera.
Basically this, for me. I want my devices to be more dedicated to a singular purpose, so I'm not tethered to my phone all day. Having a camera, an MP3 player, and a handheld makes my actions feel more purposeful. Building off that, having a "one-stop-shop" type of device or service or anything really imo makes the overall experience worse. Think Wal-mart versus a dedicated electronics store or something.
I'd love to get my hands on even a decent condition 1st gen iPod, but people want insane amounts for them now. Even my 5.5 gen was more than i wanted to pay but nearly mint.
Why did I just read an article about using an iPod that was clearly written by someone born in the early-mid 2000s? I know the original ipod was fun. I was there, gandalf
I've never understood it, but there's a lot of gatekeeping when it comes to older products. Some people think they have more rights to enjoy a product they knew existed for longer and it's really strange behaviour.
I see a lot of younger people wondering why so many people my age liked this or that and it helps to have it in context. Like "what's so great about half life? Every shooter ever is like that!" Ah, but you see, my young friend, that's now. Everything is like Half Life because Half Life changed the landscape. Not really gatekeeping, but you do lose a lot of what made a thing special if you're only looking at it without the historical context.
Why do people get frustrated about that? Someone is experiencing something for the first time, it's the circle of life.
I'm in my mid 30s and my wife bought a record player during the revival of records last decade. Do you think older generations than me found that frustrating? Personally I think it's fascinating to watch technology go full circle generation by generation
Interesting discussion to have witnessed as an outsider.
Is an article written for a a writers expression or a readers enjoyment. (Both?)
I dont think they where frustrated with the writers enjoyment but rather disappointed that the article was a first discovery opinion rather then a veterans rediscovery from a modern point of view which would have been more useful to reflect their own opinion and thus be more personally entertaining. The negativity goed inwards perceiving it as a waste of their time.
Great analysis, you're got it spot on there. It's frustration from learning nothing new from something they thought would be interesting. That probably all boils down to bad the title of the article not being descriptive enough.
To be fair, the 2600 is 47 years old, you'd have to be 52 at a minimum to remember it launching and 42 to remember the NES. I just remember loving my Atari 2600 all the way in the 90s.
I'm 42. I always got systems later than other kids. The Atari was in the house ever since I could form memories, and I finally got an NES in 1990, when the SNES and Genesis/Mega drive were on the horizon.
Then the Atari was already very old by the time you started forming memories, so it would have been your parent's generation. It was 4 years old when you were born.
Naw, no hate. iPods are fuckin rad. Younger generations should definitely get to enjoy older tech. But the author’s observations weren’t really anything I needed to invest my time in reading. I know old iTunes had a visualizer. I don’t know why I read the whole thing anyways
So we can laugh at the fact that they can't find a simple 1394 to USB cable and instead rely on daisy chaining a hundred dollars worth of apple products to make it work...
I didn't buy those adapters, I just used a computer that had a FireWire 400 port. I haven't found any evidence of those direct USB cables working with old iPods.
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